By The Stats: The Cinderella Story Mets Are Slightly Favorited To Win The World Series

The Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets will face-off in the “October Classic” starting Tuesday night and the Mets will start off the series as a slight favorite.

Here is everything you know about the World Series

The Royals and the Cinderella story Mets are coming into the World Series in great form. The Royals are led by its bats, and will have a tough time against New York’s ridiculously talented pitching rotation. The question, “What happens when an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?” will be answered this series.

“[As] you might have noticed, not swinging and missing is the specialty of the Royals’ house. They’re the Connoisseurs of Contact. They put 4,683 balls in play this season. That’s the most in baseball, and only two other teams were within 200 of them.

“They were the only lineup in the majors to strike out in fewer than 16 percent of all plate appearances. No other team was less than 18 percent. And as FanGraphs’ Jeff Sullivan wrote last month, that’s the lowest strikeout rate in modern history,” reported ESPN.

Catchers

Both Travis d’Arnaud of the Mets and Salvador Perez of the Royals have been their respective teams’ weak links in the lineup. D’Arnaud has been slightly less terrible in the Championship Series, but his defense isn’t the greatest. Despite that, the Mets have the advantage.

First Base

Here the Mets have the clear advantage. Lucas Duda was on fire in the NLCS against the Cubs. He hit .400 with 1 HR and 6 RBIs.

Eric Hosmer, on the other hand, only hit .250, but he was able to knock in 6 runs. His low average against the Mets arms may make it a very long series for him. Homer, however, did have a solid regular season. He hit .297 and knocked in 93 runs.

Second Base

The Mets have an “advantage.” We air quoted this because the “man of the hour” can easily flame out just like he caught fire.

Daniel Murphy has been nothing short of Babe Ruth so far this postseason for the Mets. Murphy hit a total of 14 home runs —a career high— during the regular season, but during the post season he has hit a whopping 7 home runs and has been the spark that has driven Mets.

That stat says it all. He’s having a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde season. Who will show up in the World Series?

The Royals, on the other hand, have Ben Zobrist. He hit a solid .320 in the ALCS with 2 home runs and knocked in 4. Zobrist has been the most consistent throughout the season, but its all about “what have you done for me lately” in sports.

Shortstop

The Royals’ shortstop Alcides Escobar is coming into the World Series red hot. Escobar hit .478 and knocked in 5 RBIs.

The Mets’ Wilmer Flores hit a respectable .286 for the NL Champs, but that wont be enough in the World Series.

Advantage: Royals

Third Base

Mike Moustakas of the Royals has had a miserable postseason. He is hitting an anemic .167, but has —somehow— knocked in 5 runs. He got all 5 of his postseason RBIs in the ALCS.

David Wright of the Mets has had an injury-plagued season. “Captain America” hit .286 with a .444 OBP. He, however, only knocked in one run.

This one is a toss-up. It all depends how they play during the “fall classic.”

Outfield

Kansas City has a steady group of hitters in the outfield. This group —much like the rest of the team— are experts in putting the ball into play. Rios, Cain and Gordon knocked in a total of 9 runs and hit a combined .310 in the ALCS.

The Mets had 6 players play in the outfield during the NLCS, but they were only able to knock in runs among them. As a group they hit an abysmal .210 (full disclosure: Nieuwenhuis only had 2 at bats and went hitless. The group hit closer to .213, which is still terrible).

Advantage: Royals

Starting Pitching

The Mets have a clear advantage with their pitching staff. No need to even really go over it. The New York starters have been unhittable. Period.

Bullpen

This is pretty even in the last innings of the game both Royals and Mets have been solid and neither team really has a clear advantage.

Closer

You would think a closer like Wade Davis with a 0.90 whip and an ERA of 0.00 would be a lock to give the Royals the advantage, but the Mets feature Jeurys Familia with a WHIP of 0.41 and a 0.00 ERA to go along with 5 saves, two more than Davis.

Familia was very dominant in the NLCS. Batter only hit .133, nearly 70 points lower than what Davis managed.

Basically both have been bananas, but the Mets have a slight advantage.

This World Series is going to define if pitching or hitting wins the big games. The Mets’ pitching staff has been sick, but the Royal’ bats are no joke.

The Mets have a slight advantage to win the whole thing, for now. We’ll see how the series plays out and if the pixie dust sprinkled on their offensive catalyst, Daniel Murphy, has worn off. The Metropolitans hope that the clock hasn’t struck midnight just yet.